Post-Political and its Discontents: Spaces of Depoliticisation, Spectres of Radical Politics

Japhy Wilson

jun 2014 · Edinburgh University Press

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Our age is celebrated as the triumph of liberal democracy. Yet it is also marked by a narrowing of party differences, a decline in voter participation, a rise in nationalist and religious fundamentalisms and an explosion of popular protests that challenge technocratic governance and the power of markets in the name of democracy itself. This book seeks to make sense of this situation by critically engaging with the influential theory of 'the post-political' developed by Chantal Mouffe, Jacques Ranciere, Slavoj ?i?ek and others. Through a multi-dimensional and fiercely contested assessment of contemporary depoliticization, 'The Post-Political and Its Discontents' urges us to confront the closure of our political horizons, and to re-imagine the possibility of emancipatory change.

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Japhy Wilson is Research Coordinator at the National Strategic Centre for the Right to Territory (CENEDET) in Quito, Ecuador. His research explores the intertwining of space, power and ideology in the politics of international development. He has published in academic journals in the the fields of political economy, human geography, and development studies. He is the author of Jeffrey Sachs: The Strange Case of Dr. Shock and Mr. Aid (Verso 2014). Erik Swyngedouw is Professor of Geography at Manchester University. His research interests include critical theory, political-ecology, urban governance, democracy and political power, and the politics of globalisation. His was previously professor of geography at Oxford University (until 2006) and held the Vincent Wright Visiting Professorship in Political Science at Science Po, Paris, 2014. He is the author of Liquid Power: Contested Hydro-Modernities in Twentieth-Century Spain (MIT Press, 2015).